Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering, Summer 2020 Vol. 5 No. 1 Summer 2020 | Seite 14

8 MOMENTUM • VIRGINIA TECH MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
Graduate student helps
in Malawi on track amid
by April Raphiou, Center for International Research, Educat
Brianna Friedman,
a master’s degree
student in mechanical
engineering, carries
equipment, aircraft,
and supplies in
preparation for the
first class of the
African Drone and
Data Academy in
Malawi.
Twenty-five students from nine Af
countries were prepared to make h
March 18. They would be the first
ing class from the African Drone a
Academy in Malawi, a joint educat
effort between Virginia Tech and U
that provides students with drone,
entrepreneurship skills.
Then, news came that a novel coro
was spreading.
Brianna Friedman, a Virginia Tech
degree student in the College of En
ing and an instructor at the academ
Malawi when she heard the news.
realize the extent of the virus until